CHARLES SCHWAB CONFIRMS SPOT BITCOIN AND ETHEREUM TRADING LAUNCH FOR H1 2026, OPENS WAITLIST Charles Schwab confirmed it remains on track to launch direct spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in the first half of 2026 through a new platform called Schwab Crypto, which will be offered through its Charles Schwab Premier Bank subsidiary. A Schwab spokesperson told CoinDesk on Friday: “We remain on track to launch our spot crypto offer in the first half of 2026, starting with bitcoin and ether.” The firm has opened a waitlist for early access. CEO Rick Wurster told Barron’s in March that the rollout will begin with a limited release in Q2 2026, starting with internal employee testing before expanding to invited clients and then the broader public. The service will initially exclude clients in New York and Louisiana. Schwab manages approximately $11.9 trillion in client assets, giving it a distribution base larger than any crypto-native exchange. The announcement extends a brokerage-to-crypto adoption wave already underway. Morgan Stanley has separately filed to launch spot Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana ETFs, and Coinbase received a conditional national trust company charter from the OCC earlier this week. Schwab already offers Bitcoin futures, crypto-linked ETFs, and its Schwab Crypto Thematic Index ETF. Spot trading would allow clients to directly own Bitcoin and Ethereum for the first time within their existing brokerage accounts.